Apparatus for inserting hair into work pieces



Oct. 4, 1966 A. KLASSERT ETAL.

APPARATUS FOR INSERTING HAIR INTO WORK PIECES 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 5, 1965 fl! mm N 2 a a 8 NM .2 v QM om Tm Wm 3% a K J I Q w J w A 3 w l @w nm T; Rm :5 RE? -4 3MP Oct. 4, 1966 A. KLASSERT ETAL 3,

APPARATUS FOR INSERTING HAIR INTO WORK PIECES Filed Aug. 5, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 7 37 '1 /I'V I 1 L /-/0 I4 Z FIG. 2

Oct. 4, 1966 A. KLASSERT ETAL 3,276,407

APPARATUS FOR INSERTING HAIR INTO WORK PIECES Filed Aug. 5, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Oct. 4, 1966 A. KLASSERT ETAL 3,276,407

APPARATUS FOR INSERTING HAIR INTO WORK PIECES Filed Aug. 5, 1965 4 Sheets-$heet 4 United States Patent 3,276,407 APPARATUS FOR INSERTING HAIR INTO WORK PIECES Aloys Klassert and Theodor Helfrich, Frankfurt am Main,

Germany, assignors to Walter Ullrich, Kalherau, Ba-

varia, Germany Filed Aug. 5, 1965, Ser. No. 477,557 Claims. (Cl. 112--79.5)

This application is a continuation-in-part of our application Ser. No. 249,984, filed January 4, 1963, now abandoned.

The invention relates to a machine for inserting hair or filaments of a predetermined length to a work piece such as doll heads, plastic caps, wigs and the like.

It is known to insert hair into a work piece by means of a sewing machine forming a kind of modified chain stitch (crochet stitch) where after a stitch is formed, the chain is drawn out to a b ight and then cut to form tufts. In our copending application Ser. No. 241,075, now Patent No. 3,225,724, one of us has disclosed a type of such stitch which is particularly suitable for this purpose. There, an endless filament is fed to the sewing machine and is out, after every stitch, to the desired length.

However, for various purposes, particularly for the use of natural hair, it is necessary to use pre-cut hair lengths. The machines known for this purpose make use of a stacking magazine from which the lengths of hair can be fed to the sewing needle by means of a rotating disc. Such mechanisms are not suitable for working with natural hair which, owing to its fineness and varying length, is difficult to gather into magazines and also very hard to feed to the sewing needle.

It is also known to cause the sewing needle to plunge directly into a magazine in order to grip the stacked lengths of hair and to pull them out in loop form. The jabbing of the needle, however, soon brings the stack of hair into disarray so that only a few successive stitches can be made without interruption.

It is the principal object of the invention to provide a device which eliminates said deficiencies and makes it possible to work with lengths of delicate and very fine filaments, such as natural hair.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means for placing filaments of predetermined length into the needle hook and for ensuring a controlled feed of such filaments.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the specification and claims.

According to this invention, a chain stitch sewing machine operated with a pressure foot is provided with a magazine arranged perpendicularly to the stitching direction for receiving straight lengths of hair, a front end of said magazine facing the needle and allowing withdrawal of said lengths, means ensuring said lengths to remain in the magazine in outstretched position, gripper means located at the same side of said magazine as the needle and drawing successively such lengths of hair from said magazine, means reciprocating said gripper means in front of the needle in a straight path and drawing at each return stroke a filament or a bundle of filaments in a stretched state in front of the needle, means arranged transversely to said drawn stretched lengths of hair transferring said lengths to the hook of the needle, and means pulling out the ends of the filaments being stitched.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the magazine is a drum along whose surface the lengths of hair are arranged the lowest point of the drum surface being approximately at the level of the path of movement of the gripper means, so that the hair or filaments are drawn 3,276,407 Patented Oct. 4, 1966 off from the lower side of the drum. The drum is rotated, for instance, by a ratchet and pawl mechanism connected with the presser foot of the sewing machine.

In order to facilitate the piling and orderly withdrawal of the filaments, the drum is preferably covered with a band of card clothing having teeth radially projecting from the surface of the drum; said teeth may be of steel and serve to hold and straighten the filaments. For relatively long drums, said teeth may be arranged in spaced groups so as to provide room for retaining bands holding the card clothing in place.

The device according to the invention provides a simple method to root also genuine hair in work pieces. As all drives for the accessories are derived directly from the sewing machine, no additional driving mechanisms or complicated controls are required. The drum magazine ensures a proper and easy feeding of the filaments whereby the magazine can be completely emptied by appropriate rotation of the drum.

The invention is further explained in the description and accompanying drawing which illustrate a preferred embodiment of a machine for rooting hair provided with a magazine drum for predetermined lengths of hair.

In the drawing,

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of part of a sewing machine, parts being shown in section;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the magazine drum;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line IIIIII of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the sewing machine, without the magazine drum, showing the filament feeder;

FIGS. 5a and 5b are fragmentary elevations similar to FIG. 4, showing various positions of the filament feeder;

FIGS. 6a and 6b are detail fragmentary elevations of the gripper means in successive positions;

FIG. 7 is a front view of said gripper means in closed position, and

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of a pull-out disc and sectional view of the cooperating sewing tools.

In the sewing machine shown in the drawing, the magazine 1 comprises a body 2 of wood or plastics provided at its ends with journals 3 and 3a. Journal 3 of the drum end facing the sewing machine is secured in a plate 4 which is bolted to the head of the machine. The journal 3:: at the other end of the magazine is supported in a bushing 5 which is held by means of a wing nut 5 on a support arm 6' bolted to the machine table 6. This assembly makes it possible to unfasten and remove the drum. To the end of the drum facing away from the sewing machine, there is cemented a rubber plate 7 which, in cooperation with a disc 8 at the bushing 5, brakes the rotation of the drum. Spaced bands 9 of card clothing, three in the example shown, are mounted on the drum body 2. Said bands consist of sleeves 10 with radially projecting wire teeth 11 (FIG. 2). The filaments 56 are placed around the drum lengthwise in between said card teeth until the drum magazine is completely filled. The layer of filaments can be subsequently trimmed to length so that the filaments project uniformly a few millimeters beyond the drum end facing the sewing machine. Rubber bands 12 disposed between the spaced bands of card clothing hold and compress the filament layer. A disc 14 provided with ratchet teeth 13 is screwed to the end of the drum facing the sewing machine (FIGS. 2 and 3). A plate 16 is fastened to the presser foot 15 of the sewing machine, said plate bearing at its upper part a holder 17 for a pawl 18 engaging said teeth 13. Each time the presser foot rises and falls during the sewing operation, pawl 18 advances the disc 14 and therewith the magazine 1 by an angle corresponding to the width of the tooth space. By means of a knurled screw 19, which acts in conjunction with the tension spring 20 (FIG. 1) upon the pawl holder 17, said angle of rotation can be adjusted so as to make it possible to grip also filaments lying in the interstices between the tooth positions.

At the sewing machine arm there is fastened a supporting bar 25 which bears in two grooves a gripper support 26. Said gripper support 26 and supporting bar 25 are provided with longitudinal slots to allow adjustment of the gripper support in vertical and horizontal direction. In a longitudinal groove formed by the two legs 26 of the gripper support, there are disposed both the upper gripper portion 27 and the lower gripper portion 28, said portions being held together by a pivot pin 29. Two slide members 30, which are disposed in a longitudinal groove 30' of said lower gripper portion 28, are secured each by a screw 31 on the gripper support 26 and give the gripper its horizontal guidance. Two links 32, which are movably coupled to the lower gripper portion 28 by means of a Seeger eyebolt 33, are connected to a forked lever 34 and a roller lever 35 and produce the reciprocating movement of the gripper (FIGS. 6a and 6b) from a cylindrical cam 36 secured to the main shaft 60 of the machine.

The roller lever 35 with its cam follower 37 and the forked lever 34 are fastened on a shaft 38 by means of square headed bolts. Said shaft 38 is held by two eyelets on a shackle 39 which in turn is fastened laterally to the machine head with two square-headed bolts. The two links 32 are connected to the forked lever 34 by means of recessed pins 40 pressed into the links. A tension spring 44 arranged between the forked lever 34 and the gripper support 26 constantly urges the cam follower roller 37 against the cylindrical cam 36. A pawl 41 on gripper support 26 and a cam 42 on upper gripper portion 27 cause the gripper to open on its forward movement towards the magazine (FIG. 6a). At the back stroke, the gripper remains closed (FIG. 6b), since the pawl 41 can swing aside and a compression spring between the two gripper portions keeps the gripper closed. A tension spring 44a urges pawl 41 inwardly against its stop.

The tip of the gripper must be so formed as to ensure that it grips a filament when it is advanced into the filament layer on the drum magazine. Thereby, the term filament is used here and throughout the specification to define individual filaments, yarn, or threads, including natural hair, as well as strands composed of several filaments or hairs. A suitable gripper tip is shown, by way of example, in FIG. 7. There, the lower gripper portion 28 ends into a vertical knife edge 65, and the upper portion 27 ends into a U-shape 66 enclosing said edge 65. Of course, said two shapes can be interchanged. Such gripper tip allows of seizing between knife edge 65 and U-shape 66 individual or very few filaments while the rounded outer surfaces of the gripper shove away the filaments which do not lie just above the knife edge. The U-shape of the upper gripper portion has been raised at the beginning of the plunging manipulation of the gripper and is advanced above the filaments lying on the knife edge. For a proper operation of the device, a sufiicient number of filaments must be placed upon each other all around the drum magazine so that the gripper should not, even at the end of a working cycle, grip into empty space. If this should happen nonetheless, the operation must be interrupted to fill up the magazine.

A cam follower lever 45 (FIGS. 1 and 4) is mounted on a stud 46 and secured with a Seeger keeper. A cam follower roller 47 is urged against a cam by means of a tension spring 49 placed between said lever 45 and a spring bolt 48. Said cam 50 is radially adjustable and fastened with the cylindrical cam 36 on the main shaft of the machine. A filament feeder 51 is fastened on the cam follower lever 45 by means of a set screw 45' for axial and radial adjustment. Said filament feeder 51 is forked and provided with end hooks 51' which move both sides of the needle (FIGS. 5a and 5b).

A thread guide 52 is provided in front of the draw-off end of :the magazine drum and secured to the supporting plate 4 (FIG. 1). The gripper passes through slot 52 of said guide and pulls therethrough the filament drawn off the magazine drum. Said guide 52 prevents that such filaments, when pulled out completely from the drum, can be displaced transversely of the drum, and it ensures that the filaments maintain their longitudinal direction.

When a filament 56 has been rooted in the work piece, its end is completely pulled out of the magazine by means of a pull-out disc 53 (FIG. 8), which rotates at uniform speed in unison with the sewing operation and is mounted on the arm 25' of the sewing machine by means of a gear 53. Said disc 53 has circumferential slots 54 interrupted by webs 55 so arranged that the sewing needle makes its upward and downward stroke within one slot and that the web following the slot then entrains the ends of the filament 56', which had been moved downwardly by needle 22 and rooted in the work piece (shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1). Thereby, the ends of the filaments are combed back in the direction of the rotation of the pull-out disc 53.

The use of such pull-out discs is known, for instance, from Patent No. 2,812,734 and application Ser. No. 241,075. Other devices may be used which have the same function. Generally, a hooked loop forming needle 22 will be arranged in cooperative relation with thread carrying needles 22 (FIGS. 5a and 5b).

The method of operation is as follows: During the movement of the gripper 27, 28 from the right to the left, it opens in the second half of its travel (FIG. 6a) and plunges with its tip into the layer of filaments accumulated on the magazine drum 2 until the jaws of the gripper close instantaneously when the left end position has been reached. Thereby, the knife edge 65 and U-tip 66 of the gripper seize one or more filaments 56, whereby the amount of seized filaments depends on the width of the gripper parts 65, 66, which, for this purpose, can be made exchangeable. While the gripper with the seized strand returns to the right (FIG. 6b), the latch needle 22 pierces from below the work piece 190 lying on the work support 101. After the gripper has reached the right-hand end position, it remains in idle position and holds the strand, which with its other end is still held by the rubber bands 12 on the magazine drum 2, in stretched position. When the latch needle has reached the highest point of its movement and the work piece has been advanced in the usual manner, the thread feeder 51 seizes the stretched strand and places it into the hook of the needle. The pivotal movement of the thread feeder 51 takes place somewhat faster than the advance movement of the needle for the work piece so that the strand placed into the hook of the needle remains therein and no loose filaments can slip out of the hook (FIGS. 5 and 6). Shortly before the needle disappears again in the work piece, the thread guide 51 returns to its starting position. While the needle is descending and the thread feeder 51 is moving backwards, the gripper starts again moving to the left in order to get a new strand after it has released the previous strand. At the instant where the needle, during its downward movement, disappears in the work piece, the strand is pulled away from the sewing place by the web 55 of the disc 53 (FIG. 8) and thereby the portion of the strand still left in the magazine is pulled out from the magazine through the thread guide 52. In the meantime, the needle forms at the underside of the work piece the lower loop and then passes again through the work piece upwardly so that the sewing operation can continue as set forth hereinabove. In order to shield the lengths of hair guided away from the pull-out disc 53 and already stitched with respect to the magazine drum, a guard 21 is arranged preferably in the bottom area of the magazine drum.

The term strand as used above includes also single filaments and hair lengths. The stitch formation itself is i an Object of this invention. As stated hereinabove,

a suitable stitch is disclosed, e.g. in Ser. No. 241,075 which corresponds to German Patent No. 1,172,521.

We claim:

1. In a device for inserting filaments of predetermined length into a work piece, in combination with a chainstitch sewing machine provided with a reciprocating hooked needle and a presser foot and a machine drive for operating the machine, a magazine arranged perpendicularly to the stitching direction for receiving precut lengths of filaments, means for holding said filaments at the magazine in straight axial direction, gripper means for drawing successively filaments from said magazine, means reciprocating said gripper means past the needle in a straight path perpendicularly to the movement of the needle, means arranged transversely of said straight path for transferring the filaments to the hook of the needle, and means for completing the pull-out from said magazine of said filaments seized by said gripper means.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said magazine comprises a cylinder mounted for rotation and means on the surface of the cylinder for holding filaments in axial direction thereon.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2 wherein the lowest point of the cylinder surface is about flush with the path of said gripper means.

4. A device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said holding means is a card band having radially projecting teeth.

5. A device as claimed in claim 4 comprising an annular band holding the lengths of hair extending beyond the teeth of the card band.

6. A device as claimed in claim 1 comprising a pawl at the presser foot and a ratchet disc at the end of said magazine facing the machine, said pawl and ratchet disc cooperating to rotate the magazine.

7. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said gripper means comprise an upper and a lower jaw, comprising means operating said jaws from said machine drive.

8. A device as claimed in claim 7 wherein the gripping end of said gripper means comprises a knife edge and a U-shaped member surrounding said edge.

9. A device as claimed in claim 1 including means for adjusting the depth of penetration of said gripper means into the filaments stacked held by the magazine.

10. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said pullout means is a rotatable disc provided with spaced circumferential slots for reception of the needle, and with webs separating said slots, which webs are adapted to seize the ends of the filaments being stitched by the needle and pull them completely out of the magazine on rotation of the disc.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,714,928 5/1929 Sigoda l12198 2,069,912 2/1937 Brinton 112-795 2,812,734 11/1957 Richards 112-79.5 2,828,702 4/1958 Hall 112-79.5

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner. I. R. BOLER, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A DEVICE FOR INSERTING FILAMENTS OF PREDETERMINED LENGTH INTO A WORK PIECE, IN COMBINATION WITH A CHAINSTITCH SEWING MACHINE PROVIDED WITH A RECIPROCATING HOOKED NEEDLE AND A PRESSER FOOT AND A MACHINE DRIVE FOR OPERATING THE MACHINE, A MAGAZINE ARRANGED PERPENDICULARLY TO THE STITCHING DIRECTION FOR RECEIVING PRECUT LENGTHS OF FILAMENTS, MEANS FOR HOLDING SAID FILAMENTS AT THE MAGAZINE IN STRAIGHT AXIAL DIRECTION, GRIPPER MEANS FOR DRAWING SUCCESSIVELY FILAMENTS FROM SAID MAGAZINE, MEANS RECIPROCATING SAID GRIPPER MEANS PAST THE NEEDLE IN A STRAIGHT PATH PERPENDICULARLY TO THE MOVEMENT OF THE NEEDLE, MEANS ARRANGED TRANSVERSELY OF SAID STRAIGHT PATH FOR TRANSFERRING THE FILAMENTS TO THE HOOK OF THE NEEDLE, 